The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations…
“For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”
I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations. (New International Version)
This section of Isaiah’s prophecy looks forward to a better day. After centuries of downward spiraling into disobedience, the people found themselves on hard times.
In the prophet’s day, God’s people and their lives needed to be rebuilt, restored, and renewed; they needed salvation and deliverance; and the good news of healing, freedom, and comfort.
The proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor is a reference to the Old Testament command to practice the year of Jubilee. The Jubilee was to occur every fiftieth year of Israel’s existence in the Promised Land. For forty-nine years there were individuals and families that would incur debt; indenture themselves into servitude in order to survive; perhaps land in a debtor’s prison; and, work hard in the fields that they once owned.
These were, indeed, hard times. But after the forty-nine years, on the fiftieth year, the debts were erased; slaves were freed; fields allowed to rest; and, the land restored back to its original owners.
God’s deliverance is not only spiritual, but also very tangible and real. Salvation is not just otherworldly, merely looking forward to the end of the age; there’s also the anticipation of transformation here and now.
The recipients of good news are those who are in bad circumstances. God turns toward the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, those who mourn, and the faint of spirit. God really does have a special concern for the lowly and the weak.
It’s significant to note that, Israel as a whole, found themselves in need – not because they were victims of adverse situations – but because they failed to obey the stipulations of their covenant with God.
For example, we have no evidence that the Israelites actually even practiced the Jubilee. By the time fifty years came down the pike, after God gave them the Promised Land, they had slid so far down the spiritual drain that it was completely off their radar to practice a Jubilee.
It seems no one had any intention of forgiving debts, freeing their indentured servants, giving back the land to original owners, and providing the land itself with a well-deserved Sabbath rest.
To not practice the Jubilee was to rob people of their land and be unjust to them. Yet, God loves justice and hates robbery. God pays attention to those who are not getting their very real and tangible needs met. So, God speaks words of hope and deliverance for those in circumstances beyond their ability to cope with.
The first few verses of today’s Old Testament lesson are the words that Jesus turned to and read in the synagogue when he began his earthly ministry. Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this promise to deliver and provide. He came to usher in a Jubilee celebration that would have no end.
It may be easy to overlook these verses, believing that they don’t pertain to us. Gentiles are under no obligation to practice a Jubilee. After all, many people are blessed, both material and spiritual. Furthermore, we can always identify persons who are in much more need than we are.
And yet, it’s important to recognize that the maladies of our hearts are very real. There are specific conditions in our lives that leave us in bondage and in need of restoration, renewal, and revitalization, just like the Israelites of old.
Therefore, we must not suppress those realities and those needs, but name the conditions which are packed away in a closet of our heart deep inside us, such as:
- the love of things and money
- severed relationships
- old grudges
- hidden addictions
- domestic violence
- denial of depression
- secret affairs
- fear and anxiety
- anger and hatred
- hoarding of resources and greed
Outward smiles and small talk conversations may hide the truth from others, but they do nothing to hide ourselves from a God for whom everything is laid bare.
The good news is not just for someone else who has “obvious” needs. The gospel must touch our lives and bring us freedom, so that we can pass on good news to the legion of social ills that make our world sick.
There are people all around us who need spiritual and emotional, mental and material help. Yet we will not have eyes to see them, or hearts to help them, if we ourselves stuff our burdens so deep within that we are blind and unable to see others.
What’s more, on the other hand, we may too easily misread these verses in a manner it was never intended to be heard, as if we are more in need than we actually are:
“The Lord’s Spirit of consumer choices is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the middle-class. He has sent me to bind up the half-hearted, to proclaim more options for the limited, and release from Black Friday for the buyers, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s Cyber-Monday.”
We may not be so crass as to say this out loud, but we might tend to misinterpret Bible passages, so as to avoid our own great poverty of heart.
And when we become expert at stuffing our emotions and our needs, we then fail to see the year of Jubilee. We may believe that other people, “those people,” need Isaiah’s words. However, we are also in need of the year of Jubilee.
The truth for many is that they are either one paycheck, one prodigal kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious illness, one drink, one affair, or one bad decision away from being one of “those people” – the people we typically identify as in need – the ones that bad things happen to – the ones we do not want to live next door to us.
We may not yet be vulnerable enough to admit our situation; and so, we keep practicing the denial of our spiritual poverty. Everyone is brokenhearted about something or someone, such as:
- a wayward son or daughter
- an unfulfilled dream
- a lost relationship
- a difficult illness or health diagnosis
- a crisis situation
In addition, everybody is in bondage to something we would rather not admit; everyone needs renewal and restoration.
What should we do? Where are we to turn?
Let’s turn from the things that have caused us to be in poverty and in prison, and delight in the Lord our God. Rejoice in the Lord.
God will make a sprout come up, and cause it to grow.
God will rebuild our ruined souls.
God will restore the places of our lives that have been devastated.
God will even renew the places that have not seen renewal for generations.
It begins with you and me allowing the justice of God to work within us, and not only for other people.
God cannot bring comfort to those who do not mourn; the Lord cannot turn grief into joy if there is no acknowledgment of a dire situation. To be an oak of righteousness, there must be a confession of despair and an allowance of the justice of God through Jesus Christ to work its way completely through us.
Let the Lord replace a head of grief with a crown of beauty. Let God place a garment of praise to replace the stinky clothes of grumbling. And, in this season of Advent, herald the coming of the Christ child as the hope of us all, to the glory of God. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 